Golden girl Shvedova achieves perfection

Three weeks after appearing in the French Open final, Italy's Sara Errani was on the receiving end as unseeded Yaroslava Shvedova made history on Court Three yesterday. Shvedova, who won her third-round match 6-0 6-4, became the first woman in the Open era to win a perfect "golden set" as she took the first 24 points of the match.

Errani won the first point of the following set but was unable to prevent Shvedova progressing to the fourth round for the first time. Last month the 24-year-old from Kazakhstan reached the quarter-finals of the French Open, where Errani lost to Maria Sharapova in the final. Shvedova also broke her own record for the number of consecutive points won by a woman. Six years ago she won the first 23 points of a second-round match against Amy Frazier in Memphis. Even more remarkably, Frazier went on to win the match 1-6 6-0 6-0.

American Bill Scanlon is the only man who has won a "golden set" in modern times. He did so in a 6-2 6-0 win over Brazil's Marcos Hocevar at Delray Beach in 1983. Andy Murray dropped just four points in a set when he came from behind to beat Rafael Nadal in the final of the Japan Open in Tokyo last year.